July 30, 2013

DARA participated in the UNISDR Making Cities Resilient Campaign Partners’ Meeting, held in Barcelona, April 4-5, 2013.

Approximately fifty participants were in attendance, representing a range of countries across the globe and different sectors, including local governments, academic institutions, civil society/NGOs, donors and UNISDR Regional offices. Also in attendance were Ms. Margareta Wolhstrom, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for DRR, and Ms. Helena Molin Valdés, Deputy Director at ISDR and Campaign Coordinator.

The two days were comprised of presentations from different partners, presentations from UNISDR and working groups, where the focus was mainly on identifying ways forward for the campaign, how partners can contribute to a shared workplan, and how they could create and advance a local government-based agenda in the HFA 2/Post 2015 global discussions.

DARA participated in a round table briefing with partners on supporting local governments for effective implementation of risk reduction with the implementation of the 10 Essentials for risk reduction. The methodology and findings of the Risk Reduction Index were presented as a tool for scaling-up local knowledge and as an input to inform DRR policies in the six West African countries included in the study (Cape Verde, Ghana, Guinea, Niger, Senegal, and The Gambia).

Finally, one outcome of the meetings was the proposal for the Campaign to write a “State of DRR at the Local Level, 2015” report, to be ready for the Word Disasters Conference in 2015. This will build on the information currently being gathered by UNISDR from local governments through the Local Government Self-Assessment Tool (LG-SAT), and will incorporate more research and data from other partners. The view is for the report to provide evidence of the status of DRR at the local level, and inform and influence decision-makers with policy-oriented recommendations and solutions.